Cosmetics Manufacturing Business Plan

Bluespa

Execution

Marketing & Sales

Marketing Plan

Bluespa will utilize a brand building (pull) strategy as the basis for our marketing plan. We will position our print media spend in magazines that influence our target consumer and validate the brand. The publications we will utilize are: W, Vogue, Wallpaper, Cosmopolitan, Travel & Leisure, Vanity Fair, Departures, In Style, Food & Wine, Shape, Town and Country and the New York Times Sunday edition. These are the same publications retail buyers and trend analysts scour to find emerging brands or trends. In addition to paid ads in regional issues of the publications mentioned, we will retain a PR firm to develop a grass roots program for obtaining product placement and celebrity/trainer endorsements. Our media and PR strategy will bring the brand to the forefront for the consumer and set the stage for our image development. We will have a separate plan to market to spas and retailers at trade shows. In addition we will develop a unique in-store graphic and communication package that explains our products benefits and advantages at point of sale.

Sales Plan

Our retail sales strategy consists of just two parts. First we will hire and train people who fit the Bluespa image and lifestyle. Our training programs will insure that they have the product knowledge necessary to serve the customers needs and close the sale. Second, our commission and retention programs will insure we recognize and reward performance. Our sales people will be on a commission program that compensates for follow up sales at progressively higher rates. This will provide an incentive for consumer follow up and the creation of repeat business. Our commission program will also insure that individual performance is monitored and recognized. Top performers will be singled out for recognition and poor performers will be given additional training or encouraged to seek a profession more suitable to their skills.

Our wholesale sales program will evolve through two phases as we grow. In the first phase leading showrooms will represent us. Alweil Studios will act as our national sales manager. They will be paid a 15% commission on all sales and will manage the contracts with other showrooms. This rate is three points above the average for small firms and five points above the average for larger accounts. These higher rates will motivate the reps to promote Bluespa products and aggressively pursue reorders. They will also handle order follow up and customer service. Their commission will be paid 50% at time of shipment and 50% at time of payment, insuring a vested interest in customer satisfaction and payment. After we reach $6,000,000 in wholesale business to outside accounts we will begin to develop an internal sales force and customer satisfaction team. Our internal sales team will be paid 6% of sales. The customer satisfaction team will handle all post sale activities. Insuring delivery, claim processing and collection. (This team will cost approximately 8% of sales in salary and support costs.)

Operations

Locations & Facilities

The company’s main office is located in Portland Oregon. The office is approximately 400 square feet. An additional 800 square feet of office space can be made available within the building. This should be sufficient for planned staff size within the first few years. The company has a five-year lease on the current space with an additional five-year option. An option exists on the expansion space as well.

Distribution in the first year will be managed from a facility in Southwest Portland. In years two through five we plan to manage distribution through a contract resource capable of handling both wholesale distribution and retail fulfillment.

Skin and body care products will be developed and produced at our contract facilities in Pontrieux and Nice, France and Compton, California.

Production of apparel products will be managed through our contract manufacturer of sport-related apparel. They have a 50,000 square foot production facility in Portland, Oregon for high-quality technical apparel and a 200,000 square foot facility in Mexico for the production of t-shirts and other knitwear.

Production of accessories will be managed through a contract with a manufacturer of quality sports-related accessories including: bags, hats, totes and socks for the wholesale market. Their office and distribution facilities are located in southern California.

Milestones & Metrics

Milestones Table

Key Metrics

Our key metrics are 

• Cost of goods of products – we have a lot of customers that can’t afford very expensive products, we need to keep an eye on the cost to stay competitive
• Facebook page views 
• Twitter tweets and retweets 
• Blog shares 
• Instagram 
• Website 
• Community events